Children do what feels good. Adults do what is required. It’s time for Exxon to put their big girl panties on and look in the mirror and just admit it and quit it. Just admit. I. Was. Wrong. That’s the first step to real change is admitting your faults. Next, look in the mirror and genuinely do better. If you really want to win or at least compete, you need to look for natural leaders within every level from the top to bottom. In case you didn’t get the memo, we do not trusts your current managers. You lost all credibility when you lied to your employees and treated them like they weren’t nothing more than sc-ap metal when you informed them for the first time they were recommended for termination in their performance review. When you lied and said you weren’t laying off. And when you lied about your performance as a leader in oil and gas. I mean who sabotages themselves like that in public while the world is watching? Not the yes people you have in place. But people who want you to succeed. Some may be misfits to the current culture. Some will be experienced hires. Some will be with the company for many years. But you need people who are your saving grace because great organizations at every level rise and fall from people . People who will fight for you and with you because it’s in their DNA. You cannot create a leader. You develop them. You cannot create a genuine desire to succeed. That has to be in the person already. But you can choke them. You can bully them and continue to run them out and train them to go to BP, Shell, and Chevron, and continue to whip your a– and embarrass you by incorporating their talents that Exxon misinterpreted as NI or NSI or as a mismatch instead of the missing piece to your puzzle. So ExxonMobil what are you going to do? Do you want to go down as the worst Oil and Gas flop in American and world history, making Enron look good or do you want to flip the switch, compete, and change? What do you want the upcoming business and financial professors to teach about the lessond learnt from Exxon? Exxon who died from the cuts of their own blade? (COVID is not the cause; it just exposed and accelerated what was bound to happen) Or is Exxon going to be known as the the major who rose to the occasion and made the radical changes required to rebuild trust, character and put values back into the fibers of your company’s DNA and take your place back at the table as one of the top oil and gas company in the world? Your choice. We are watching.
Respectfully,
Vested in Your Success. Not Interested in Your Failure.
10 replies (most recent on top)
Short answer: No. EM is just so stubborn, esp with such bad leadership up top.
@vyq+16TnsYll
Lol - “bad apples”.
Where have I heard that before, Ms. Floyd?
Like in most failing institutions, it’s not just some “bad apples”; it’s a system of incentives, bad behaviors fostered, unaccountable leadership, and awful culture. A system incapable of telling apart bad apples from good ones.
The weight of their mistakes is compounded by the inability to hear different perspectives and act in the best interest of the collective - not themselves. They have dragged down this company for decades.
It’s not up to us to wish (or not) that they fail - they do that on their own. And they will continue nosediving unless something truly transformational happens. I won’t hold my breath as they’ve shown repeatedly incapable of change.
@vyq+16TnsYll Glad you got PIP.. blah blah.. we don’t need an NSI to tell us what to do.. we will be better without NSI dragging us down. WINNING!
Nice post, OP, but I disagree. ExxonMobil should eventually fail, as will the other IOCs. The sun is setting on oil as the lifeblood of civilization. It may not look that way from remote, isolated, self-referential Texas, but the rest if the world is already moving on. ExxonMobil's crisis is a bit more intense because of its complete, willful blindness to the elephant in the room. Big Money as well as individual shareholders cut other IOCs a bit more slack because they at least appear to be trying. But make no mistake. We are past the inflection point on both climate and will to act. Companies that are part of the problem will not survive.
No one should want XOM to fail. Improve? Yes. Fail? No. XOM has real people working and depending on XOM for their wages. Families. Another post mentions spouses, children, grandchildren. It is not right how XOM has behaved but cultural change takes time. It’s not an over the night process. I am not condoning what XOM has done. I too was PIPed. I too took the package and I’m angry. But I do not want XOM to fail. I agree with change. There are people from employees to partners all over the world depending on XOM. We should want them to succeed. I agree with acknowledgement of past mistakes. But people and companies can change. Maybe this is forced change but families depend on XOM and all companies to earn a living. Stop promoting doom and gloom and start promoting second chances. It took some companies terrible incidents that forced their change. XOM is now having to face their change. But it’s not right to want a company to fail. There are innocent people who depend on the company. Just remove the bad apples and bad culture but improve. It’s not right to want XOM as a whole to fail. You are talking about real people.
I just checked and many large cap funds still have XOM as major holdings. Fund managers don't normally announce changes in their composition but hey, they can remove bearish XOM anytime anyway. So it's doom and gloom for XOM outlook.
Damage has already been done and this is the point of no return. Not unless the demand for oil goes up again, I doubt that XOM will recover fast. Many companies have converted to WFH so that's not good for XOM. I predict that that there will be a mass sell of XOM stocks and mutual funds will remove XOM from their portfolio much like losing the blue chip status. Morning Star will devaluate XOM stock and that means there's not much we can do at that point.
@LFS what is yammer?
Yammer worthy post
First of all. Wow! I am vested too as a current employee, and I also want the company to succeed, but I do hope for change. We have some really great leaders, managers, and employees in place that are working in an obsolete culture. I believe we can take our place back at the table if we are willing to listen. I hope we bounce back stronger than before.